Reading Festival Day One: What We Have Learned

So with the first day of Reading done and dusted, let’s take a look at the “moments” of the day – those unmissable, i-was-there bits that make a festival.

Dananananakroyd’s secret show
Those eager beavers who storm the gates at midday precisely are normally just rewarded with first dibs at the comedy beanie stand and a load of bands not good enough to play at, like, 1pm. Today, however, they were treated to everyone’s favourite fight-pop band in full fancy dress on the NME/Radio 1 Stage.

Florence’s birthday shenanigansFlorence hauled her machine out of bed early also for another secret gig, this time on the BBC Introducing Stage in celebration of her birthday. She was treated to a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ from the crowd and in return gave them back ‘Drumming Song’ and her cover of Candi Staton’s ‘You Got The Love’. She also unwrapped a pressie during her main set: a full-on air horn.

‘Be The One’
The first festival anthem I’ve seen this weekend saw Jack Penate succumb to an epileptic fit during its brass breakdown before jumping into three teenagers that couldn’t carry his weight for the chorus. He had umpteen thousand people leaping up and down in unison for undeniably the NME/Radio 1 Stage’s first moment.

A Place To Bury Strangers
At the other end of the crowd interaction spectrum, APTBS eschewed the “how the fuck are you doing REEEAADING” approach, choosing instead to completely ignore the crowd and rupture eardrums from here to Pewsey – Ash Dosanjh’s moment of the day.

‘New In Town’
Emily Mackay’s highlight was seeing the Reading love for Little Boots, cementing her status as the finest electro pop star of 2009. LB also threw her stilettos into the crowd, which must be a first.

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The Non-KOL headliners
While we love a bit of Kings, they’ve done every festival from here to 2002 – and as ever the Main Stage was far too quiet. Instead it was all about Faith No More doing the EastEnders theme tune on the NME/Radio 1 Stage and Marmaduke Duke over on the Festival Republic Stage, dressed in gimp masks and medieval garb, before hearing the news that Noel’s left Oasis and singing ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ all the way home…

If you’re on the internet from your tent or hotel, comment us up with your best bits.